Advanced biomedical hydrogels: molecular architecture and its impact on medical applications

Jonathan T Peters; Marissa E Wechsler; Nicholas A Peppas

doi:10.1093/rb/rbab060

Advanced biomedical hydrogels: molecular architecture and its impact on medical applications

Regen Biomater. 2021 Nov 9;8(6):rbab060. doi: 10.1093/rb/rbab060. eCollection 2021 Dec.

Authors

Jonathan T Peters^{1

2}, Marissa E Wechsler³, Nicholas A Peppas^{1

2

4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, 200 E. Dean Keeton, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
² Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, and Regenerative Medicine, The University of Texas at Austin, 107 W. Dean Keeton, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 107 W. Dean Keeton, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
⁵ Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, 107 W. Dean Keeton, Austin, TX 78712, USA.
⁶ Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, and Department of Pediatrics, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin, 1601 Trinity St., Bldg. B, Austin, TX 78712, USA.

Abstract

Hydrogels are cross-linked polymeric networks swollen in water, physiological aqueous solutions or biological fluids. They are synthesized by a wide range of polymerization methods that allow for the introduction of linear and branched units with specific molecular characteristics. In addition, they can be tuned to exhibit desirable chemical characteristics including hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity. The synthesized hydrogels can be anionic, cationic, or amphiphilic and can contain multifunctional cross-links, junctions or tie points. Beyond these characteristics, hydrogels exhibit compatibility with biological systems, and can be synthesized to render systems that swell or collapse in response to external stimuli. This versatility and compatibility have led to better understanding of how the hydrogel's molecular architecture will affect their physicochemical, mechanical and biological properties. We present a critical summary of the main methods to synthesize hydrogels, which define their architecture, and advanced structural characteristics for macromolecular/biological applications.

Keywords: biological applications; biomedical applications; hydrogel reactions; hydrogels; mesh size; networks.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

R01 EB022025/EB/NIBIB NIH HHS/United States